Cold, Rainy Days and Long Nights Provide Perfect Reading Weather

Its short days and long, dark nights make winter a good time of year to have a stack of books ready for reading. My bedside table has two books I’d like to recommend.

Amy Tan’s The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. Her observations of bird behavior, feeding habits and species interactions are educational and fun to read. Her bird obsession is relatable for any of us who are feeding birds in our yards. I bought my copy at Tsunami Books, as I like to purchase from local bookstores whenever possible.

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

I also asked for book recommendations from friends who share some of my interests!

Barbara Bryson suggests Nature’s Best Hope, by Douglas Tallamy, as it led her to garden for birds, not just for beauty. She says it is very readable yet based on science.

Cecelia Hagen is reading Birding to Change the World, by Trish O’Kane. It’s a memoir by a former human rights journalist who earned a PhD in environmental studies. She then went on to working with her neighbors and students in Madison, Wisconsin, to save Warner Park, Madison’s second-largest municipal park, from further development that would have stopped it from serving as a major urban wildlife refuge. It’s packed with information and stories and serves as an inspirational guide for how people can collaborate to make a positive difference.

Jim Maloney offers a thoughtful list of books to watch for:

The Lichen Museum, (Art After Nature), by Laurie A. Palmer. Serving as both a guide and companion publication to the conceptual art project of the same name. The book explores how the physiological characteristics of lichens provide a valuable template for reimagining human relations in an age of ecological and social precarity.

The State of Fire: Why California Burns, by Obi Kaufmann. The author presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. Packed with Kaufmann’s signature watercolor maps and paintings, The State of Fire confronts one of California’s most pressing social and ecological challenges.

Dawn Songs: A Birdwatcher’s Field Guide to the Poetics of Migration, by Jamie K Reaser (Editor), J Drew Lanham (Editor)

Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves, by J. Drew Lanham. This provides a sensuous new collection in Lanham’s signature mix of poetry and prose.